My Jumper

Last week, in the Salvation Army, I found a jumper that I used to own 20 years ago. It wasn’t mine, of course, but it may as well have been. Like a time machine, it took me back. I got it on sale at the Gap and wore it for years, I wore it thin. Finding it on the clothes rack, hanging with all the other dresses,was like seeing an old friend. I couldn’t resist it. But I knew I didn’t want it hanging around my studio too long (really, who needs all those memories). Then, remembering it was 100% cotton, I realized I could use it for potholder backings.

It seemed fitting, like reclaiming the past. There was something transformative about using it in the way that comes most naturally to me now, which is to cut it up and make something out of it. Because we can change the past in the way that we think about it in the present. Three years ago, that jumper would have evoked painful memories in me for days. Now I can smile knowing I had some good times in my jumper and then let it all go. Knowing, also, it was all somehow leading to now.

My jumper as potholder backing

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6 Responses to “My Jumper”

Maria: I love the print, and glad that you could use it and remember the good times you had wearing the jumper.
You have had some wonderful colours in your quilt and potholders in the past few days – nothing quite like colour to carry us through the days of winter.
We have had lots of sunshine, and the moon at night has been glorious. This is unusual for us at this time of year, as we are usually mostly overcast and rainy!
Have fun. Peg

I am also a thrift shop aficionada. Isn’t it fun to spot the memory triggers among the treasures for sale? And, if I buy nothing, at least I had a few smiles. It also reminds me of the children’s book “Henrietta”s Hat” in which a woman’s church hat goes through many new lives including becoming a grandchildren’s dress-up favorite. It may also go to a rummage sale, I don’t remember, but it finally becomes a horse’s sun hat. Henrietta the horse, that is. And your jumper becomes part of a potholder. I like to think evolution.